The present invention relates to the display of web sites by a web browser and, more particularly, relates to the display of web sites by a web browser in a mobile client wherein the web site may be sectioned and zoomed-in to provide enhanced web browser usability.
Recent mobile versions of many web browsers default to a desktop view in which web pages are loaded and rendered as they would appear in a full personal computer web browser. However, to accommodate the desktop version, these mobile web browsers zoom out to allow the entire web page to be rendered in a low screen resolution. In this zoomed-out view the user can understand the page layout, but can only read larger text such as titles and headings. The user must then use affordances, provided by the web browser user interface (UI), to zoom in and pan to sections of the page in which he or she is interested. However, once the user has zoomed in and panned to this area of interest, he or she may experience a noticeable delay while page content that will not be displayed in the section of interest is loading.
During this delay in loading page content, various visual cues may be used to indicate that page content is still being loaded and rendered. For example, the user may see a checkered gray background in areas they have zoomed in and panned to while web page content is being loaded.
Delays that result from loading non-displayed content can be especially annoying to users who frequently visit certain web sites and almost always pan or zoom to the same location. For example, consider a user who frequently visits a weather website that includes information about current weather conditions, the 5-day weather forecast, etc. If the user always pans and zooms to the 5-day forecast, the user must wait for the non-displayed content not in the selected area to load every time the user visits the website.